Gay bar cedar rapids

“Fun bar with a friendly staff. Drag shows are a lot of fun. Check out Tuesday karaoke for a mid week ” more. Gay-Friendly Bars and Hotspots in Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Lighthouse Lounge: Located downtown, The Lighthouse Lounge is a popular lgbtq+Q+ bar known for its friendly atmosphere. Belle's Basix. Cedar Rapids' premiere gay bar. Weekly drag performances. Dancefloor. Serving the community with pride since Map your best Cedar Rapids, Iowa gay and lesbian night out.

Cedar Rapid's LGBTQIA+ Nightclub Sunday Sunday Sunday SINFUL SUNDAY - OPEN STAGE DRAG SHOW 8 PM - NO COVER - HAPPY HOUR ALL DAY 5PM - 2AM. But the owners of Studio 13 in Iowa City stepped in to buy the club, which simply will be called Basix. It was a place where the person across the bar from you probably knew who you were.

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Before the advent of the internet and social media, these places were found by word-of-mouth, mail-order books detailed with LGBTQ bar locations around the nation and certain codes. Before she came out in , Newhall resident Jennifer Rowray, now a popular lesbian personality on TikTok, was going to the nightclub, a gay staple in Iowa City now closed. Long before mainstream establishments picked up on the trend of putting their building number or address in their name, as did the club, she said it was generally a signal of safety for gay patrons.

For Rowray, 53, bars like Club Basix in northeast Cedar Rapids felt like they had an element of danger after coming of age at nightclubs in abandoned buildings off railroad right-of-ways or hard-to-find locations.

Today, the visibility of a rainbow flag outside these spaces makes a difference to younger generations like the ones who follow her on TikTok. She hopes the space will be transformed into a place where generations can mesh and learn from each other. Like most bartenders, she served as part counselor and part liaison, connecting patrons to each other and their community.

That, I think, is the most important part of it. Even in the small ways, the shared culture is a continuous demonstration that gay bars like Basix do more than tolerate LGBTQ patrons — they accept them. That strength has been shared with other minorities, too. To her parents, acceptance was a family value.

Photos of her in the bar show her with a sense of confidence on display and cigarette in hand as the young woman discovers a new community. When many friends came to confide in her, Basix was the first place she took them to find their support system. Today, the straight woman, 43, serves as a mentor to many LGBTQ youth coming out and looking for their chosen family.

But in helping others find their clan among the rainbow colors, the Black woman found a community of support for herself in a predominantly white world. For some like Jenness Asby, it was about finding themselves more than it was about finding others. Like many others, her favorite memories in the space include times where she felt comfortable wearing clothes not prescribed to her gender. NE in September , other bars served the LGBTQ community with a sense of irony — the places where people could make the brightest memories as their authentic selves were hidden in the darkest corners of the city.

In the s, that included Sidetrack Lounge at Fourth St. There, patrons walked down a dark, narrow sidewalk sandwiched between the building and the tracks, where trains passed by only a few feet away and offered even more cover in the darkness. It had an address, H St. It was in the basement, which was accessible only by the north side of the building below street level, on a slope heading toward the river.

With a small, crude sign, the entrance was lit by an old, star-shaped light bulb. The two floors above The Warehouse were occupied by a scrap metal salvage company. Today, the structure now at what is now Valor Way SW has been restored into The Chelsea, a residential structure. Comments: ; elijah.

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